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MAINTENANCE REPAIR OVERHAUL

Signs nance events coming due as aircraft re-enter service. Engine MRO,

already the biggest chunk of the aviation aftermarket, is expected
to increase its share further to almost half of the expected total
MRO spend of US$114 billion by 2030.

of Life The recovery of the engine MRO segment is spurred mainly by
some of the leading players in the market that had the resources
and the swiftness of mind to quickly adapt to the reality of the
pandemic and tailor programs for customers that were leaking
cash and staring at an uncertain future. Companies such as MTU
Maintenance, Lufthansa Technik, StandardAero and AF KLM E&M
have in recent months experienced increased workloads and are
also going ahead with expansion plans.
THE ENGINE MRO MARKET
WAS HIT HARD BY THE MTU Maintenance expects to return to pre-Covid-19 levels by
2022/23, earlier than the market. Notwithstanding the fact that
PANDEMIC BUT IS NOW ON military and cargo operator base of engine MROs have remaining
THE ROAD TO RECOVERY relatively untouched by the downturn, the overall impact of the
pandemic on the industry has been so severe that other compa-
nies are not so confident. Lufthansa Technik expects the engine
Arun Sivasankaran overhaul market, which was poised to soar before Covid-19 hit, to
take a minimum of 2-3 years to recover and another 1-2 years to
The high demand for engine MRO capacity that get back to 2019 levels. “It has to be driven by full overhaul events,
the aviation industry witnessed before COVID- because volume-wise you will never achieve the old volume you
19 is not coming back anytime soon, but signs had with only smaller type of work scopes or hospital shop visits,”
of revival are visible even though the impact of says Marc Wilken, Lufthansa Technik senior director product sales
the pandemic will continue to be felt until 2023. and engine lease.

The early recovery of engine MRO is critical “We have learned that portfolio diversity, network scale and flexi-
importance for the overall MRO market as it is bility within your operational organization is key in an unpredictable
expected to be the main driver of growth over market environment,” says Martin Friis-Petersen, Senior Vice
the current decade. According to Oliver Wyman, President MRO Programmes at MTU Aero Engines. “At MTU, we
airframe and engine MRO are expected to see remain confident in overall market recovery and have been focusing
recovery growth first from the effects of the on keeping our capacities on-board throughout the crisis. This will
pandemic, benefitting from deferred mainte- help us manage the ramp-up going forward.”

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